Cool cats beating a path to Crookes

Sheffield Jazz has settled into its new home at Crookes Social Club which last year featured excellent attendances with lots of new faces.

And now they are looking to consolidate on that with the 2017 spring programme.

The season opens next week (Friday, January 20) with Jim Hart’s Cloudmakers joined by Hannes Riepler on guitar and Antonin Tri Hoang on sax. That international flavour runs through the whole season, with Barry Green’s New York Trio (February 3 at the Crucible), the Sirkis / Bialis International Quartet (March 17) and when Hannes Riepler returns with his own quartet featuring New York’s Chris Cheek on April 21.

A second strong theme this season is to highlight great musicians who rework the music of some of the greats.

On March 31 the Tony Kofi quartet will pay Homage to Ornette Colman, and on March 10 the Tom Harrison quartet featuring Cleveland Watkiss will celebrate Duke Ellington’s work with Billy Strayhorn.

On January 27 the Tommaso Starace quartet explore the music of Cannonball Adderley while on May 12 Denys Baptiste celebrates the work of John Coltrane.

The UK’s rising stars have not been forgotten either. On March 24 the Crucible will stage the widely acclaimed Jasper Hoiby’s Fellow Creatures quintet, featuring Mark Lockheart on sax and Laura Jurd on trumpet, in a collaboration with Music in the Round.

On February 10 there is an exciting night with Jazz Messenger one-time protégé Jean Toussaint. This is followed by the USA West-Coast influenced Allison Neale quintet on February 17 while Sheffield favourite Jay Phelps brings his quartet here on April 28. The Matt Ridley quartet complete the season on May 19.